Understanding the effect of rolling friction in the inclined track experiment

Abstract

Abstract In general, undergraduate experimental physics laboratories do not usually have experiments designed to address rolling friction and to measure the value of the rolling friction coefficient. This work explores an experiment, which has the potential to arouse students’ curiosity about rolling friction by addressing a counterintuitive aspect of the behavior of a sphere that rolls up, stops and then rolls down on an inclined track. In fact, due to the difference in the net static friction in the upward and downward movements caused by the rolling friction term, the sphere’s acceleration when rolling upward is higher than when rolling downward. This difference, which had been predicted theoretically, was easily demonstrated graphically by video analysis, using both rubber and mouse balls. For two steel balls, this difference was more subtle, but it was still possible to detect it numerically. The experimental setup employed typical laboratory equipment and the free video analysis software Tracker to collect position and velocity data. The rolling friction coefficient was calculated with good precision by means of an angular coefficient of a fitted first-degree function involving appropriate variables.